revolution

revolution,

in a political sense, fundamental and violent change in the values, political institutions, social structure, leadership, and policies of a society. The totality of change implicit in this definition distinguishes it from coups, rebellions, and wars of independence, which involve only partial change. Examples include the French, Russian, Chinese, Cuban, and Iranian revolutions. The American Revolution, however, is a misnomer: it was a war of independence. The word revolution, borrowed from astronomy, took on its political meaning in 17th-century England, where, paradoxically, it meant a return or restoration of a former situation. It was not until the 18th cent., with the French Revolution, that revolution began to mean a new beginning. Since Aristotle, economic inequality has been recognized as an important cause of revolution. Tocqueville pointed out that it was not absolute poverty but relative deprivation that contributed to revolutions. The fall of the old order also depends on the ruling elite losing its authority and self-confidence. These conditions are often present in a country that has just fought a debilitating war. Both the Russian and Chinese revolutions in the 20th cent. followed wars. Contemporary thinking about revolution is dominated by Marxist ideas: revolution is the means for removing reactionary classes from power and transferring power to progressive ones.

revolution

1. Orbital motion of a celestial body about a center of gravitational attraction, such as the Sun, another star, or a planet, as distinct from axial rotation. See also direct motion.

2. One complete circuit of a celestial body about a gravitational center. The Earth takes one year to make one revolution around the Sun.

revolution

(political and social) ‘the seizure of STATE power through violent means by the leaders of a mass movement where that power is subsequently used to initiate major processes of social reform’ GIDDENS,1989). This distinguishes revolutions from COUPS D’ÉTAT, which involve the use of force to seize power but without transforming the class structure and political system, and without mass support. The 20th century has seen revolutions occurring not in industrial societies but in rural peasant societies like Russia (1917), China (1949) and North Vietnam (1954). Various theories exist to try to explain revolutionary change, of which the most influential have been Marxist. An example of the application of MARXISM in an actual revolutionary situation is provided by LENIN in the context of Russia. He argues that a revolutionary situation is created when three elements come into play: when the masses can no longer live in the old way, the ruling classes can no longer rule in the old way, and when the suffering and poverty of the exploited and oppressed class has grown more acute than is usual. But the revolution will only be successful when the most crucial condition is fulfilled: the existence of a VANGUARD PARTY with the necessary Marxist programme, strategy, tactics and organizational discipline to guarantee victory. In her comparative study of revolutions Skocpol (1979) criticizes Marxist theories of revolution and argues for a state-centred approach. Specifically, she views international pressures such as wars or upper-class resistance to state reform as key factors leading to the breakdown of the administrative and military apparatus which in turn paves the way for revolution. See also MOORE, REVOLUTION FROM ABOVE.

(social) any major change in key aspects of a society which leads to a change in the nature of that society. This may refer to economic transformation, as in the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, to changes in individual behaviour, as in the concept of a modern revolution in sexual behaviour’, or to a revolution in knowledge, as in the 'scientific revolution’ in 17th-century Europe, which laid the basis for all later developments in modern SCIENCE. Usage in this second sense tends to be highly variable, and may refer to comparatively long periods of time.

Originally, in the 17th century the concept of revolution referred to the process ‘of passing through the stages of a cycle that ultimately lead back to a condition that is identical or similar to some antecedent one’. Today such CYCLES OR CYCLICAL PHENOMENA are not usually referred to as ‘revolutions’.

Revolution

a profound qualitative change in the development of a phenomenon of nature, society, or knowledge, for example, the geological revolution, the industrial revolution, the scientific and technological revolution, the cultural revolution, and the revolution in physics and philosophy. The concept of revolution is most frequently used in describing social development. (See.)

The concept is an integral aspect of the dialectical conception of development. It reveals the internal mechanism of the law of the transformation of quantitative into qualitative changes. Revolution means a break in gradualness, a qualitative leap in development. It differs from evolution—the gradual development of a process—and also from reform. Between revolution and reform there exists a complex correlation determined by the concrete historical content of the revolution and the reform.

revolution

[‚rev·ə′lü·shən]

(geology)

A little-used term to describe a time of profound crustal movements, on a continentwide or worldwide scale, which led to abrupt geographic, climatic, and environmental changes that were related to changes in forms of life.

(mechanics)

The motion of a body around a closed orbit.

revolution

1. the overthrow or repudiation of a regime or political system by the governed

2. (in Marxist theory) the violent and historically necessary transition from one system of production in a society to the next, as from feudalism to capitalism

3.

a. the orbital motion of one body, such as a planet or satellite, around another

b. one complete turn in such motion

4.GeologyObsolete a profound change in conditions over a large part of the earth's surface, esp one characterized by mountain building

At the revolution, to abolish the exercise of so dangerous an authority, it became an article of the Bill of Rights then framed, that "the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, UNLESS WITH THE CONSENT OF PARLIAMENT, was against law.

No," cried he, becoming more and more eager, "Napoleon is great because he rose superior to the Revolution, suppressed its abuses, preserved all that was good in it- equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and of the press- and only for that reason did he obtain power.

To those who were not familiar with the motions of the moon, they demonstrated that she possesses two distinct motions, the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the second being that of revolution round the earth, accomplishing both together in an equal period of time, that is to say, in twenty-seven and one-third days.

Fe -- Change in Landscape -- Geology -- Tooth of extinct Horse -- Relation of the Fossil and recent Quadrupeds of North and South America -- Effects of a great Drought -- Parana -- Habits of the Jaguar -- Scissor-beak -- Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor-tail -- Revolution -- Buenos Ayres State of Government.

But the permanent interest of his thirty years of political life consists chiefly in his share in the three great questions, roughly successive in time, of what may be called England's foreign policy, namely the treatment of the English colonies in America, the treatment of the native population of the English empire in India, and the attitude of England toward the French Revolution.

In order to work out the whole subject theoretically and to complete his book, which, in Levin's daydreams, was not merely to effect a revolution in political economy, but to annihilate that science entirely and to lay the foundation of a new science of the relation of the people to the soil, all that was left to do was to make a tour abroad, and to study on the spot all that had been done in the same direction, and to collect conclusive evidence that all that had been done there was not what was wanted.

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